Sugar Rush: Five Texts They Didn't Send Each Other
by fullfrontalalchemist
Summary: It won't be long until there are no secrets between them, but for now there are some small ones.


I.

It was starting to seem like the universe really had it out for Ben Wyatt. Actually, it had started to seem like that long ago, but he had grown to accept the slings and arrows with a Zen-like calm. Except for this one. Ben was even starting to understand how Jerry felt, except everyone knew that Jerry kind of deserved everything that got thrown his way. But just what had Ben done to deserve unhappiness now? He was certain that he had completely atoned for Ice Town by now, at least enough to earn this one privilege…

But he was getting ahead of himself. Living in Pawnee with all its pervasive myths of curses and near-mandated sugar rushes and crashes was making Ben think in terms of reward and punishment. He knew full well that life wasn't like that—someone's "worthiness" didn't really matter, and that love was all about chance.

Once he had gone about bringing himself back to reality, Ben remembered again how much he hated not being able to go out with Leslie. It was fairly out-of-character for Ben to ask Chris for dating advice, and Ben couldn't help but wish he just kept his mouth shut, remaining blissfully unaware of Chris' rule.

He was doing it again. But how could he help it? This woman had infiltrated his brain like a Sweetums energy bar and had him trying to innovate his way out of his problems by going back in time and reasoning with the controller of the universe. But that was what he loved about her. She reminded him of why he fell in love with politics in the first place. Her eternally sunny outlook in a world full of evil sharks was more than adorable—it was decidedly poignant.

"Fuck it," he decided. Leslie Knope was always brave, and he'd be damned if it wasn't inspiring sometimes.

_I think you're amazing and I want to date you but Chris has a rule about coworkers dating, but honestly let's run away together instead of following that._

He slammed his phone shut in disgust. He had gotten a little carried away, and this was coming from the guy who brought her homemade chicken soup when she was in the hospital with the flu. But even if he tweaked the wording to make it less humiliating, Leslie played by the rules, and she had big plans and they probably wouldn't have had room for him anyway.

II.

Leslie was more or less in a never-ending state of excitement, but for some reason she felt more restless that morning than she usually did. She felt as though she could beat Chris in a 5k by sheer power of will. Everyone was out of the office for various reasons at that particular moment, and she was too attached to the way the photos by her desk were arranged to move them around again. She was running out of work to do.

It occurred to Leslie that she should probably talk to Ron about something Harvest Festival-related. She wasn't sure what exactly she had in mind, but she could talk about the Harvest Festival for hours, and Ron would probably ignore her anyway. Leslie took the liberty of going into his office for a change of scene and to wait for him to come back, observing the changes in decoration that she hadn't yet noticed but had probably been made a long time ago.

For some reason, the large poster of delicious looking breakfast food reminded her of Ben, and how she hadn't seen him at all since the day before yesterday. The thought of going through another day without speaking to him bothered her. She had found a kindred spirit in Ben; after all, the other employees around here were disturbingly ignorant and/or uninterested in political history for people who worked for the government. But it wasn't just that. It had occurred to Leslie more than once that Ben might be a good person to date.

Leslie needed fast action to set her mind at ease:

_If you're not too busy we should get lunch somewhere. Anything but calzones._

Maybe she had acted a little too quickly. The calzone thing was so old, and everyone in the department was in on it. Leslie could do a lot of things, but apparently she couldn't send a text message that wouldn't extinguish whatever tiny sparks of romance might have been present between them. She walked out of Ron's office, clutching her face.

"Uh, were you waiting for Ron?" asked April who had appeared out of nowhere.

"I was, actually. Any idea when he'll be back?"

"No, he said he could sense Tammy Two's presence, so who knows."

"Uh oh. I was hoping to get some work done with him. Well anyway, got anything you want to talk about? How's married life?"

April shot Leslie a glance that was equal parts annoyance and confusion.

"Right, sorry," said Leslie as she left for a brisk walk down the hallway.

Eventually she went back to her desk to reread the message she sent to Ben and remind herself exactly how big of a loser she sounded like, as well as to wildly speculate about why Ben wasn't getting back to her right away.

Thankfully, this was impossible. Leslie sighed of relief, remembering that she never got cell phone reception in Ron's office for whatever reason, rendering the message unsent. For the first time all day and in a long time, Leslie was relatively calm. He probably wouldn't have minded even if she did send the text. Ben wasn't the kind of guy to care too much about things like that.

III.

Ben had decided to stop being worried that he and Leslie would go too far and break Chris' no-dating rule when they went to Indianapolis together. He decided to stop being worried because there was pretty much no way that he would be able to stop from telling her how he felt, and while he didn't want to flatter himself he was almost certain that Leslie felt the same way.

Still, he noticed her acting strangely lately. Not too strangely, really, but every now and then she would forget herself, only to become distant and cold. At least, as distant and cold as Leslie Knope could become. Thinking about the implications of this behavior was too confusing for Ben, so he decided that the hot and cold canceled each other out and he would proceed as if he had no idea whether Leslie felt the same way as him.

Alternatively, he could just send her this text:

_Hey, we should get hotel rooms in Indy so we don't have to drive all the way back at night. Or we could get one room to save money and because we like each other._

Ben couldn't help but laugh at himself. If only it were that simple.

IV.

Leslie was still a bit dizzy from the wine, and as a result her problem-solving skills were impaired. The only things she could think to do right now to solve this problem involved, at best, bodily harm to Chris Traeger. She sighed. Even though Chris was a terrible, mean man who hated true love and happiness, he didn't deserve to be tied up and left on the side of the road. Also he could probably physically overpower her.

At any rate, her chance for action had gone when the three of them pulled up to Chris' condo. She felt like she was in Hogwarts, only because she was about to be led up to her own girls-only dorm away from Ben, and for no other reason. Yes, that was where this condo's similarities to Hogwarts ended.

Still, there was something magical about the way she and Ben looked at each other when Chris had finally left them alone for a moment. The can of worms was reopened, but nothing could be done about it now. Unless…

No, it was the wine talking again. Leslie got composed and sent herself off to bed.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire; she was safely away from Ben, but now she was stuck in a room by herself with no hope of sleep. Even with all the wine in the world, there was no way she would be able to sleep tonight.

After pacing the room for a few minutes, Leslie flung herself onto the bed and relaxed a little, since she was basically being forced to. She laughed a little at the thought of Chris and Ben downstairs. Chris was probably wide-awake and making Ben play some kind of board game with him. Leslie probably got the better end of the deal, having a room to herself. She felt bad for the guy, but not entirely powerless to save him.

_goodnight :)_

Leslie turned off her phone without sending it. They hadn't kissed yet; maybe she could keep putting this off and not risk getting fired ever. But really, typing and not sending the message was her way of showing self-control and overcoming this—no one could say she didn't try.

V.

Even though Ben had more or less made a living out of saying no to Chris, he found that he was off his game that night. So when Chris asked him to play Boggle he wasn't in a state to refuse. It was a rough game for Ben; his mind seemed bent on making every word relate to Leslie in some way, no matter how obtuse it was.

"Hold on one second," Ben said, before his ass had been completely handed to him. He took out his phone:

_Right now I'm playing some intense boggle but if it were up to me I would be kissing you._

There was no real way for that not to sound a little creepy, but it didn't matter. He didn't need to think of the right thing to say, not now. The cards were already on the table. They only had to wait one more night.


End file.
